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Apple buys PA Semi
What are the possibilities/devices?
Canada gets iTunes TV Shows
iPhone
iPhone in Canada by Year’s End!
AT&T subsidy?
iMac updates
Mac Pro and iMac getting closer
The Office Mac
WWDC
iPhone developers
SDK/App Store restrictions
Future 10.5.3 Update
Graphics Glitches
Apple Stock
Steve Jobs Replacement
Recorded 03/05/2008
Hosts: Chris (iOnMac) - Lasha (One Fused Life) - Kum (iShnoob)

Yesterday, Apple announced that we will finally be seeing the true developer SDK in early 2008. What does this mean for us iPhone users? Third party apps! No longer will we need to hack our devices to enjoy apps other than those that Apple has provided us with. I’m sure I speak for a lot of us when I say that this can’t come soon enough. 

The official countdown to Apple’s latest OSX has now began. Apple has updated its homepage to display a countdown until the release day of Leopard, Friday, October 26th at 6 p.m.

“Leopard, the sixth major release of Mac OS X, is the best upgrade we’ve ever released,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “And everyone gets the ‘Ultimate’ version, packed with all the new innovative features, for just $129.”

You can now pre-order Leopard at Apples online store.

As you may have heard, Al Gore recently won the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts in educating us all on climate change. What you may not know is that Mr. Gore is on the Board of Directors at Apple. To show their pride, they’ve put up an image with their thoughts on his accomplishment. 

Microsoft have recently released an update for Word 2004.

“This update fixes a vulnerability in Word 2004 that an attacker can use to overwrite the contents of your computer’s memory with malicious code.”

Either load up Microsoft Office Auto Update or you can download it here in a range of languages.

Today, Apple has released a directory for the many web applications that have been developed for the iPhone. Also included with the directory are a guide to develop your own web apps, and a guide on how to submit your apps for inclusion in the directory.

All-in-all, I’d say this is a very welcome development for the iPhone and iPod touch.

AppleInsider has posted an interesting overview of what’s coming in the new version of Finder. Some interesting parts of the article include a history of the Finder in past revisions of Mac OS and what exactly makes the 10.5 version so different. Definitely worth a read. 

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News/Topics:

• iPhone Software 1.1.1 - Breaks third-party apps and kill the SIM-unlock. Thoughts from the iPhone users?
• iPhone “SDK” to receive update but remain web-based
  
• Zune 2 - Improvements? What can Apple learn? How much of a threat is it? Free software update to old Zune players that give it every new Zune 2 feature. Is Apple paying attention here?
  
• Wireless Syncing with touch/iPhone? Other possibilities...
• OSX Leopard: Possible release date, Friday October 26th.
• Bungie to depart from Microsoft - possibilities of Mac games?
  

Kum:SMARTReporter is a diagnostic tool that checks the hard-drive of one’s Mac and tells them it’s SMART status. SMART is a self-diagnostic technology that’s used in pretty much every hard-drive made today. Mac OS X only provides SMART status reports from within Disk Utility, but with SMARTReporter, one can always see the status of their hard-drive from the menubar. If the icon is green, that means the drive’s fine. If it’s red, then it’s bad and you should back up your stuff and replace the drive. If it’s grey, then it doesn’t have the SMART status.

Lasha:
Paparazzi! is a webpage screenshot tool that can come in handy when you least expect. This tiny app (under 2mb) loads websites within its own window and makes screenshots of the entire webpage from top to bottom. This saves having to take multiple screens using the built in tools in OSX. Just type/paste in the URL in the app, let it load the page, and click the “save image” button where you’ll get a menu to select a location, and which image type you want it to export to. Very nice application for those who need to save certain pages without saving the websites themselves - such as web designers, etc.

Rick:
Synergy is a tiny Cocoa application for Mac OS X 10.2 (and later) that puts three buttons to control iTunes in your menubar: previous track, next track, and play/pause; as well as providing you with visual feedback about the currently playing tune. Synergy can even automatically download and display the cover of the currently playing album. The Synergy controls, together with the ability to control iTunes via system-wide hot Key combinations, mean that Synergy provides the fastest way of skipping between songs when using the keyboard or the mouse.

Chris:
Quicksilver Is an all in one software program that allows launching and more with a simple quick keystroke. A must have for finding, launching, and doing just about anything on your Mac.

Paul:
Graphic Converter."More than 1.5 million users worldwide swear by GraphicConverter – from amateur photographers to professional designers. The press has dubbed the program the equivalent of the “Swiss penknife” describing it as a “universal genius for photo editing on the Mac”.  GraphicConverter offers you everything you need and would expect for an all-round editing software for your Mac with ease of use, an excellent range of functions, stability and reliability.”

It shares attributes of both iPhoto and Photoshop and falls squarely between the two in terms of capability.  The user interface is fairly simple but can be configured for more advanced use.  GC can take almost any format of photo and convert it to almost any other format.  It can also play most video formats that the Mac handle as well.  Definitely a must have for the Mac user who is looking for something more advanced than iPhoto but isn’t looking to learn or spend the money on Photoshop.  For $34.95 this app is a great deal.